cleaner crew

[eaglefan]

One question I have is, why do my turbo snails and hermits die off in a couple weeks all my tests come back fine nitrite-0 ph-8.3 nitrate-5.0 and lower ammonia-.25 or less salinity 1.022. Does anyone know? I had 5 huge mexican turbos (biggerthan walnuts)that cleaned my tank perfectly but after 2 weeks they all started dying off one by one. Same thing with the hermits in about a 4 week period I have lost about a dozen or so. Any help out there is always appreciated.

 

[clarkiiboi]

Could be many things, maybe I can help narrow it down with some basics. How old is the tank? Getting your ammonia down to zero would be a good start. Has it been like this or did it happen after the critters died? If it was like that beforehand then that most likely is the problem or part of the problem. Also, IMO, salinity could be a bit higher, around .025. Could be water temp., you didnt mention that. How did you acclimate? A little more info is needed, but these could be factors as to why. HTH.

 

[eaglefan]

Water temp is kept at 78, I drip all new species for an hour. Ammonia was fine until they started dying, now even with a 10 gallon water change every sunday it won't drop to 0. Should I be vacuming the crushed coral bed everyweek is that somthing that is hurting it? My tank is 4 months old now. Thank you for your response

 

[clarkiiboi]

I dont know how often to clean the CC, I would think it would depend on each individual tank. I'll let someone else with experience help you on that, I have LS.
Ammonia may be from a dead snail that possibly is still in the tank, causing a mini cycle, just a thought. Bumping for others to chime in.

 

[clown-lover]

it could be that there isn't enough for them to eat. i had the same problem. finally, i waited until my tank had algea to eat and added one thing at a time.
if they die after two weeks, it sounds like they eat all they want and then starve...
just a thought

 

[eaglefan]

Thanks for the all the feedback. I think my one of my big issues is that I have red and blue legs together and after reading another thread I looked in my tank and noticed that all my red legs were the ones being killed off. I think I have enough algae on the rocks I have 150lbs of LR and its cover in all kinds of crap.

 

[tonya-sr]

just a thought, but when my salinity droped in my tank, my snails started droping off the glass and dieing, and my hermit crabs were very sluggish, when i brought my salinity back up to .025, they quit dieing. befor the snails would die there external body was a yellowish/light brownish color, if yours are this color, it just may be your salinity is to low. lots of luck.
tonya-sr